Soot
Soot is impure carbon particles resulting from the incomplete combustion of hydrocarbons. It is more properly restricted to the product of the gas-phase combustion process but is commonly extended to include the residual pyrolysed fuel particles such as coal, cenospheres, charred wood, petroleum coke, and so on, that may become airborne during pyrolysis and that are more properly identified as cokes or chars. Soot is theorized to be the second largest cause of global warming. Sources Soot as an airborne contaminant in the environment has many different sources, all of which are results of some form of pyrolysis. They include soot from coal burning, internal combustion engines, power plant boilers, hog-fuel boilers, ship boilers, central steam heat boilers, waste incineration, local field burning, house fires, forest fires, fireplaces, furnaces, etc. These exterior sources also contribute to the indoor environment sources such as smoking of plant matter, cooking, oil lamps, candles, quartz/halogen bulbs with settled dust, fireplaces, exhaust emissions from vehicles, defective furnaces, etc. Soot in very low concentrations is capable of darkening surfaces or making particle agglomerates, such as those from ventilation systems, appear black. Soot is the primary cause of "ghosting", the discoloration of walls and ceilings or walls and flooring where they meet. It is generally responsible for the discoloration of the walls above baseboard electric heating units and can be known as a gas. The formation of soot depends strongly on the fuel composition.Seinfeld, John H. ; Pandis, Spyros N. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics - From Air Pollution to Climate Change (2nd Edition).. John Wiley & Sons. The rank ordering of sooting tendency of fuel components is: naphthalenes → benzenes → aliphatics.this phenomena is also known as cracking.. However, the order of sooting tendencies of the aliphatics (alkanes, alkenes, alkynes) varies dramatically depending on the flame type. The difference between the sooting tendencies of aliphatics and aromatics is thought to result mainly from the different routes of formation. Aliphatics appear to first form acetylene and polyacetylenes, which is a slow process; aromatics can form soot both by this route and also by a more direct pathway involving ring condensation or polymerization reactions building on the existing aromatic structure.Graham, S. C, Homer, J. B., and Rosenfeld, J. L. J. (1975) "The formation and coagulation of soot aerosols generated in pyrolysis of aromatic hydrocarbons", Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. A344, 259-285.Flagan, R. C., and Seinfeld, J. H. (1988) Fundamentals of Air Pollution Engineering, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Description The formation of soot is a complex process, an evolution of matter in which a number of molecules undergo many chemical and physical reactions within a few milliseconds. Soot is a powder-like form of amorphous carbon . The gas-phase soots contain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).Rundel, Ruthann, "Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, Phthalates, and Phenols", in Indoor Air Quality Handbook, John Spengleer, Jonathan M. Samet, John F. McCarthy (eds), pp. 34.1-34.2, 2001 The PAHs in soot are known mutagensRundel, Ruthann, "Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, Phthalates, and Phenols", in Indoor Air Quality Handbook, John Spengleer, Jonathan M. Samet, John F. McCarthy (eds), pp. 34.18-34.21, 2001 and are classified as a "known human carcinogen" by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Soot can be classified as soot nanoparticles.Niessner, R. (2014), The Many Faces of Soot: Characterization of Soot Nanoparticles Produced by Engines. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 53: 12366–12379. Soot forms during incomplete combustion from precursor molecules such as acetylene. It consists of agglomerated nanoparticles with diameters between 5 to 30 nm. The soot particles can be mixed with metal oxides and with minerals and can be coated with sulfuric acid. Soot Formation Mechanism Many details of soot formation chemistry remain unanswered and controversial, but there have been a few agreements which are summarized here: * Soot begins with some precursors or building blocks. * Nucleation of heavy molecules occurs to form particles. * Surface growth of a particle proceeds by adsorption of gas phase molecules. * Coagulation happens via reactive particle–particle collisions. * Oxidation of the molecules and soot particles reduces soot formation. Hazards Soot, particularly diesel exhaust pollution, accounts for over one quarter of the total hazardous pollution in the air. Among these diesel emission components,particulate matter has been a serious concern for human health due to its direct and broad impact on the respiratory organs. In earlier times, health professionals associated PM10 (diameter<10 um) with chronic lung disease,lung cancer,influenza, asthma,and the cause of increased mortality rate. However,recent scientific studies suggest that these correlations be more closely linked with fine particles(PM2.5) and ultra-fine particles(PM0.1). Long-term exposure to urban air pollution containing soot increases the risk of coronary artery disease, according to a major study published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2007."Long-Term Exposure to Air Pollution and Incidence of Cardiovascular Events in Women" Kristin A. Miller, David S. Siscovick, Lianne Sheppard, Kristen Shepherd, Jeffrey H. Sullivan, Garnet L. Anderson, and Joel D. Kaufman, in New England Journal of Medicine February 1, 2007 Diesel exhaust (DE) gas is a major contributor to combustion derived particulate matter air pollution. In several human experimental studies using a well-validated exposure chamber setup DE has been linked to acute vascular dysfunction and increased thrombus formation."Diesel exhaust inhalation increases thrombus formation in man", Andrew J. Lucking, Magnus Lundback, Nicholas L. Mills, Dana Faratian, Stefan L. Barath, Jamshid Pourazar, Flemming R. Cassee, Kenneth Donaldson, Nicholas A. Boon, Juan J. Badimon, Thomas Sandström, Anders Blomberg, and David E. Newby1"Persistent Endothelial Dysfunction in Humans after Diesel Exhaust Inhalation", Håkan Törnqvist, Nicholas L. Mills, Manuel Gonzalez, Mark R. Miller, Simon D. Robinson, Ian L. Megson, William MacNee, Ken Donaldson, Stefan Söderberg, David E. Newby, Thomas Sandström, and Anders Blomberg This serves as a plausible mechanistic link between the previously described association between particulate matter air pollution and increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Soot also tends to form in chimneys in domestic houses possessing one or more fireplaces. If a large deposit collects there, it can ignite and create a chimney fire. Regular cleaning by a chimney sweep should eliminate the problem. Soot Modeling Soot mechanism is difficulty to be mathematically modeled because of the large number of primary components of diesel fuel, quite complex combustion mechanisms, and the heterogeneous interactions during soot formation. Soot models are broadly categorized into three subgroups. Empirical(equations that are adjusted to match experimental soot profiles), semi-empirical(combined mathematical equations and some empirical models which used for particle number density and soot volume and mass fraction),and detailed theoretical mechanisms (covers detailed chemical kinetics and physical models in all phases)are usually available in literatures for soot models. Empirical models use correlations of experimental data to predict trends in soot production. Empirical models are easy to implement and provide excellent correlations for a given set of operating conditions. However, empirical models cannot be used to investigate the underlying mechanisms of soot production. So, these models are not flexible enough to handle changes in operating conditions. They are only useful for testing previously established designed experiments under specific conditions. Second, semi-empirical models solve rate equations that are calibrated using experimental data. Semi-empirical models reduce computational costs primarily by simplifying the chemistry in soot formation and oxidation. Semi-empirical models reduce the size of chemical mechanisms and use simpler molecules, such as acetylene as precursors. Detailed theoretical models use extensive chemical mechanisms containing hundreds of chemical reactions in order to predict concentrations of soot. Detailed theoretical soot models contain all the components present in the soot formation with a high level of detailed chemical and physical processes. Such comprehensive models (detailed models) usually take high financial burden for programing and operating, and much computational time to produce a converged solution. On the other hand, empirical and semi-empirical models ignore some of the details in order to make complex model simple and to reduce the computational cost and time. Thanks to recent technological progress in computation, it becomes more feasible to use detailed theoretical models and obtain more realistic results. However, further advancement of comprehensive theoretical models must be preceded by the more detailed and accurate formation mechanisms. On the other hand, models that are based on a phenomenological description have found wide use recently. Phenomenological soot models, which may be categorized as semi-empirical models, correlate empirically observed phenomena in a way that is consistent with the fundamental theory, but is not directly derived from the theory. Phenomenological models use sub-models developed to describe the different processes (or phenomena) observed during the combustion process. These sub-models can be empirically developed from observation or by using basic physical and chemical relations. Advantages of phenomenological models are that they are quite reliable and yet not so complicated. So, they are useful, especially when the accuracy of the model parameters is low. For example, the phenomenological models can predict the soot formation even when several operating conditions are changed in a system and the accuracy cannot be guaranteed. Examples of sub-models of phonological empirical models could be listed as spray model, lift-off model, heat release model, ignition delay model, etc. See also *Activated carbon *Atmospheric particulate matter *Bistre *Black carbon * *Carbon black *Chimney sweep *Colorant *Creosote *Diesel particulate matter *Fullerene *Indian ink *Soot blower References External links * Category:Air Pollution *